Sunday, July 16, 2006

Discouraged.

There's the word I'm looking for.

This past week has been hell for me. I don't even know where to begin explaining everything that I'm feeling. When I try and think of words so many hit me at once it's impossible to seperate one feeling from another. Paranoiaconfusionlonelinessfrustrationanxietyfeardenial. It all feels like one huge wave of emotion that I don't know how to control.
The worst part is the paranoia. I have seen so many doctors lately, and I have to talk to my parents all of the time about how I feel. It gets so exhausting that there are times when I am at a complete loss for words. Last week they forced me to go to the Bipolar/Depression support group. It was horrible. When we walked in there was a girl with her head in her hands, sobbing, screaming that she just wanted to die "because the pain inside is unbearable." There were lots of bipolar people there. One woman said she would sleep for 23 hours a day sometimes, then get up and work obsessively for the next four days without sleeping. One of the men said that he would feel suicidal every couple of weeks, and then a week later find himself unable to sleep at night because he had so many ideas rushing through his head.
My parents really think that I am bipolar. They have mentioned it several times to me and treat me as if I really am and I'm just in denial. To be honest it freaks me out. The more they pressure me the more I wonder if they're right, if maybe they see something I don't. Then I'm so upset because I feel like they are tricking me. I feel like they want to find a problem with me. Something they can medicate and then forget about. Like, "we have dealt with her problems, we don't need to worry".
My mom pressured me into going to a psychiatrist. I say she pressured me but I never really had a choice in the matter. I have an appointment for it on Tuesday and I'm completely dreading it. This woman doesn't know me, what am I going to say to her? "Sometimes I am happy and sometimes I am sad." Does that make me manic depressive, or does that make me a normal human being? I am still a teenager. I haven't had the easiest life. Am I crazy for allowing myself to be upset about things?
It's gotten to the point now where I am afraid to act the way I want half of the time. I feel like I'm being watched for "signs" whenever I'm around my parents. But the more I try to avoid looking suspicious the more suspicious I act.
Take this weekend for example: on Friday we were at the beach. It was a typical lazy beach day and I slept in and took a long nap in the afternoon. Consequently I had trouble sleeping that night, and I had to get up early on Saturday for school. I got a total of maybe four hours of sleep that night, and I was at school for almost four hours in the morning. I tried to run a lot of errands in the afternoon, and by 9:00 that evening I was wiped out. I wanted a good night's sleep because I hadn't had one the night before, so I took a sleeping pill. I slept for almost twelve hours. I was also groggy from the medication for most of the day today, so I took a nap in the afternoon. Then I mentioned to my parents at dinner that I didn't want to go to church. My mom said she was concerned about my "escapism", etc.
After dinner, I had promised to hang out with a friend, so I had a cup of coffee before I went to meet up with her. Because I still felt pretty groggy. We hung out for a while and by the time I came home I was pretty awake. So I started working on my homework and doing some stuff my mom had asked me to do before she left. I have a ton of homework to do this week, and I promised Angie I would help out with VBS, so I wanted to get a head start on it while I had time and energy. I might not have either of those later in the week.
To me, this all seems like logical, rational behavior. There is an explanation for everything. To my mom it looks like: she slept too much on Saturday, she slept today, she doesn't want to hang out with her friends, now she is going overboard on her homework and not sleeping at a logical time: SHE MUST BE MANIC DEPRESSIVE.

I don't know what I am supposed to do. I can't tell what's bothering me for real and what is just my family freaking me out. I feel like I'm in one of those movies where the main character is insane and everybody knows it but him. I'm afraid everyone thinks this but me.
I think because of all this it's been really hard to deal with people lately. The only people I've really spent any time with are the people who I've been friends with for years. I guess since they know me better I'm less worried about them jumping to conclusions.
At the same time, in all of this, I'm brutally aware of the fact that they can't really be my support system. In September they will all go back to their various schools and I'll be in the same position I was last fall.
So basically I feel like shit. I'm scared. Mostly I'm scared of talking to people. I guess that doesn't particularly matter because, really, I don't have anyone to talk to.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang. This does not sound fun at all. I think God is still good, so hopefully there is a reason for all of this. Pretty stinkin hard to see it now, though. Dang.

Unknown said...

Insanity is not a word you make me think of.

My biggest struggle in life has been living with a father with mental conditions... anxiety disorder, bi-polar and obsessive just to name a few. He goes from depressed and withdrawn to loud verbal abuse in a moment, it's always hard to see it coming and scary when it happens. That is the only father I know- either absent or abusive. My mom doesn't know what to do about him... he is extremely difficult to live with.

He takes meds for his anxiety but hates how they mellow him out, so sometimes he stops taking them and then his behavior is really extreme. When he takes his meds consistently he is still difficult to live with but not nearly as abusive and scary.

Girl, I don't know if you are bi-polar. I pray that you're not. Either way, help is so important. I find that the more I talk about struggles in life, the less I have to deal with the personality consequences of the struggles. Life can mess you up, especially if reactions are bottled up. I didn't tell anyone about my family being messed up until I was 15 years old and I regret it. Everyday I put up a "life is perfect" mask and it was exhausting. Opening up at first was so scary because I was sure people would either completely reject me or not believe what I was saying. The more I realized how supportive friends were the more I was able to talk… and heal… from things in my past.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Laura Anne said...

Hey Ciara,

I am amazed at the level of maturity in which you are handling all of this. I would be as confused as you seem, if not more.

I wish I could tell you if you have bipolar or not (my gut instinct is no), but I cannot because I am not your therapist. However, I will be praying your psychologist makes wise judgment calls and is sensitive enough to realize that diagnosing someone with bipolar disorder will affect every aspect of their life.

I'll be praying you gain understanding in all of this.

I just realized there's a lot I want to say, so I'll email you the rest.

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